Chapter 12
1The men of Ephraim were gathered together, and passed northward;
and they said to Jephthah, Why did you pass over to fight against the
children of Ammon, and didn’t call us to go with you? we will burn your house
on you with fire.
2Jephthah said to them, I and my people were at great
strife with the children of Ammon; and when I called you, you didn’t
save me out of their hand.
3When I saw that you didn’t save me, I
put my life in my hand, and passed over against the children of Ammon, and
Yahweh delivered them into my hand: why then are you come up to me this
day, to fight against me?
4Then Jephthah gathered together all the men of
Gilead, and fought with Ephraim; and the men of Gilead struck Ephraim,
because they said, You are fugitives of Ephraim, you Gileadites, in
the midst of Ephraim, and in the midst of Manasseh.
5The
Gileadites took the fords of the Jordan against the Ephraimites. It was so,
that when any of the fugitives of Ephraim said, Let me go over, the
men of Gilead said to him, Are you an Ephraimite? If he said, No;
6then
said they to him, Say now Shibboleth; and he said Sibboleth; for he couldn’t
manage to pronounce it right: then they laid hold on him, and killed him at
the fords of the Jordan. There fell at that time of Ephraim forty-two
thousand.
7Jephthah judged Israel six years. Then died Jephthah the
Gileadite, and was buried in one of the cities of Gilead.
8After
him Ibzan of Bethlehem judged Israel.
9He had thirty sons; and thirty
daughters he sent abroad, and thirty daughters he brought in from abroad for
his sons. He judged Israel seven years.
10Ibzan died, and was buried at
Bethlehem.
11After him Elon the Zebulunite judged Israel; and he judged
Israel ten years.
12Elon the Zebulunite died, and was buried in Aijalon
in the land of Zebulun.
13After him Abdon the son of Hillel the
Pirathonite judged Israel.
14He had forty sons and thirty sons’ sons, who
rode on seventy donkey colts: and he judged Israel eight years.
15Abdon
the son of Hillel the Pirathonite died, and was buried in Pirathon in the
land of Ephraim, in the hill country of the Amalekites.
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